suppliers operations

We want our products to be part of a sustainable global movement. That’s why the factories that make our clothes must adhere to our Terms of Engagement. These Terms define labor, health, safety and environmental guidelines to help ensure the safety of apparel workers and communities in which they live and work. They also set out employment standards and specifically address issues of child labor, forced labor, disciplinary practices, working hours, wages and benefits, freedom of association, discrimination, and health and safety.

We want our products to be part of a sustainable global movement. That’s why the factories that make our clothes must adhere to our Terms of Engagement. These Terms define labor, health, safety and environmental guidelines to help ensure the safety of apparel workers and communities in which they live and work. They also set out employment standards and specifically address issues of child labor, forced labor, disciplinary practices, working hours, wages and benefits, freedom of association, discrimination, and health and safety.

Supplier List

OUR FEATURED SUPPLIERS

For 165 years, Levi Strauss & Co. has worked to honor the pioneering spirit of hard work, individuality and authenticity in how we make our products and how we run our company. We’ve dedicated ourselves to elevating the dignity of the people who work to bring our clothing to market. And we’ve invested our time, energy, heart and resources in improving the future of these communities.

We actively support the International Labor Organization’s Better Work program to improve working conditions in fabric mills and at component parts factories. Better Work brings local enterprises, international buyers, governments and NGOs together to build partnerships and create a rigorous cycle of improvement.

WORKERS’ RIGHTS GRANTS

Through our Workers’ Rights grants, which focus on the needs of women in apparel factory settings, we aim to positively influence business practices and build the capacity of local organizations and governments to improve living and working conditions.

HIV/AIDS PROGRAM PARTICIPANT

Our HIV/AIDS grant partnerships support community organizations in more than 40 countries with a focus on educating apparel workers about HIV/AIDS. Our grants also focus on eradicating discrimination against people living with HIV and providing assistance to those most vulnerable to infection.

MANUFACTURING

We were one of the first apparel companies to release the names and locations of all the contract and licensee factories that manufacture and finish our products. We believe that making our factory list public will foster sector-wide improvement on supplier performance and workplace conditions.

Raw Materials

COTTON

Grown in more than 100 countries, with China, India and the U.S. accounting for nearly two-thirds of global output, cotton accounts for 40% of the world’s fiber production and generates a $40 billion a year textile market. More than 40 million farmers and 290 million farm workers make a living by growing cotton.

Though we are a big consumer of cotton, we use less than 1% of the world’s annual cotton crop, making the promotion of sustainable practices in a fragmented industry challenging. By creating alliances with other big cotton consumers, we leverage the power of our brands in support of more sustainably produced cotton, which uses less water and fewer pesticides. To form the Better Cotton Initiative, we joined forces with other brands and retailers, including H&M, Marks & Spencer, Adidas and IKEA. Also key to this effort are groups like WWF, Pesticide Action Network UK, Solidaridad and farmers’ organizations such as the International Federation of Agricultural Producers.

We’ve also teamed up with other stakeholders to take a stand on how cotton is grown in Uzbekistan. We don’t buy cotton directly and do not allow our suppliers to buy Uzbek cotton because of forced child labor practices.

OTHER RAW MATERIALS

Though fewer than 5% of the raw materials in our supply chain is from sources other than cotton and a small fraction of that percentage is material derived from animals, Levi Strauss & Co. still strives to source materials responsibly. Our goal is to ensure that wherever animals are used in the production of our products, their health and welfare are protected. View our corporate Animal Welfare Policy.

As part of our commitment to source sustainable forest fabrics, we are working with environmental nonprofit Canopy and others in the apparel industry to ensure that no forest-based materials that originate from the world’s ancient and endangered forests are used to make our products.

LS&Co. supports the efforts undertaken by the Dodd-Frank Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to eliminate illegal mineral trading and the funding of armed conflict, while supporting legitimate commercial ventures in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighboring countries. You can read our Conflict Minerals Policy Statement to learn more.

Fabric Mills

In 1991, we created our Terms of Engagement, which was a first for the apparel industry and details what we require of our business partners in practices pertaining to everything from worker rights to the environment.

We’ve been working to extend these manufacturing guidelines further in our supply to the textile mills, but are happy to see that many of our fabric mill suppliers are already focused on sustainability. For example, one of our largest mill suppliers, in Mexico, operates one of the world’s largest privately owned wastewater treatment plants. This facility has state-of-the art technology that enables it to recycle approximately 75% of its water and direct it to other production processes, rest rooms and landscape irrigation.

We are one of six apparel companies working with the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) on a pioneering initiative to reduce the environmental impact of textile mills in China. As part of theNRDC’s Responsible Sourcing Initiative, so far five mills have reduced their water, energy and chemical use, and the NRDC has developed a guide to sustainable practices that will be used by other mills worldwide.

Product Suppliers

For more than 155 years, Levi Strauss & Co. has worked to honor the pioneering spirit of hard work, individuality and authenticity in how we’ve made our products, and how we’ve run our company. We’ve dedicated ourselves to elevating the dignity of the people who work to bring our clothing to market. And we’ve invested our time, energy, heart and resources in improving the future of those sourcing communities.

OUR CODE OF CONDUCT

Almost two decades ago, in 1991, we were the first multinational apparel company to establish a comprehensive workplace code of conduct for our manufacturing suppliers. Our Sustainability Guidebook spells out labor, health and safety, and environmental requirements. It is based on United Nations documents such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and International Labor Organization (ILO) Core Conventions. Over the years, many companies have adopted similar codes of conduct, and today most of those reflect our original Terms of Engagement. In 1995, we added strict water quality standards as part of our environmental requirements. And in 1999 and 2005, we strengthened protections of workers’ rights to form unions and conduct collective bargaining.

IMPLEMENTATION

Over the years, we have established a strong program to assess how well our suppliers are meeting our code and, when we identify problems, how to improve. We have also learned that monitoring our suppliers is only one part of improving working conditions. In addition to working directly with our suppliers, we have programs in the communities to strengthen worker rights. We also work with governments to strengthen labor laws and their enforcement. Ultimately, improving working conditions in our supplier factories requires the involvement of our suppliers, local organizations, governments and other buyers that may be sourcing in those factories.

AT THE FACTORY

We employ full-time factory assessors, located around the world where our suppliers are. These experts understand the scope of our labor and environment, health and safety standards and know the local languages, laws, culture and business context of each country in which we operate. They conduct regular assessments of every factory contracted to manufacture our products. These assessments are based on standards found in our Sustainability Guidebook, which all our suppliers receive in their local language. These assessments involve on-site and off-site discussions with workers, management interviews, review of factory records (such as timecards and payroll) and environment, health and safety inspections. Each assessment identifies areas for improvement and a detailed corrective action plan, including actions, responsible parties, and timelines. Regular follow-up visits are also conducted to ensure suppliers are completing their corrective action plans on a timely basis. Recent public attention to the situation in Bangladesh has prompted us to share additional information about our efforts there.

Over the years, we have learned that while the factory assessment process is important, the key to lasting improvement in working conditions is for our suppliers themselves to understand and appreciate the importance of operating a responsible workplace. Today, we are spending more time and resources working with our suppliers to improve their human resource and environment, health and safety programs, training their personnel and developing the systems to operate a responsible workplace.

IN THE COMMUNITY

The Levi Strauss Foundation focuses on funding programs that strengthen worker rights and improve the working and living conditions for the people who make our products. Through these grants, we support innovative local, regional and global nonprofit organizations that encourage the enforcement of labor laws, increase awareness around health care issues and promote access to asset-building and life skills training for our employees, contractors and their families.

GOVERNMENT ADVOCACY

As pioneers in the fight for fair employment practices, we firmly believe that workplace standards and worker rights should be an integral part of all bilateral, regional or multilateral trade negotiations. Levi Strauss & Co. was the first and only major multinational company to publicly advocate for linkage of trade and labor, incorporating key workplace standards and worker rights provisions within the context of trade agreements. And we continue to do so whenever and wherever we can — through congressional testimony, meetings with senior government officials, trade negotiations and multi-stakeholder initiatives.

TRANSPARENCY

In October 2005, we were one of the first apparel companies to release the names and locations of all our active, approved owned-and-operated, contract and licensee factories that manufacture and finish Levi’s®, Dockers® and Signature by Levi Strauss™ products. We believe that making our factory list public fosters collaboration with other brands and lead to sector-wide improvement on supplier performance on improving workplace conditions.

INDUSTRY COLLABORATION

In many cases, we are not the only apparel company working with a given supplier. One of the reasons we are transparent about our suppliers is to reach out to other apparel brands and organizations to see how we can work together in the factories we share. By getting the rest of the industry involved, we are able to send a stronger message to our suppliers about the importance of operating a responsible workplace.

Industry Collaboration

In many cases, we’re not the only apparel company working with a given supplier. One of the reasons we are transparent about our suppliers is to more easily connect with other apparel brands and organizations to see how we can work together in the factories we share. By getting the rest of the industry involved, we are able to send a stronger message to our suppliers about the importance of operating a responsible workplace. A full list of our collaborators is available at Our Partners in Progress on this website.

Facilities

Among our areas of focus for reducing energy use are our large-scale distribution centers, which are responsible for 60% of our total energy consumption. Besides more energy-efficient store designs, we are employing new, high-efficiency lighting systems that yield aggregate energy savings of anywhere from 20% to 40%.

We are installing a new high-efficiency lighting system in new U.S. retail stores going forward. Lighting is responsible for about 70% of the energy use in our retail operations and the new lights are expected to save from 30% to 50% of total lighting energy use and aggregate energy savings of 20% to 40%.

WE DISTRIBUTE THE MAJORITY OF OUR PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES, AND HAVE BEEN AGGRESSIVELY PURSUING WAYS TO REDUCE CARBON FOOTPRINT.

Our commitment is international. Take, for instance, our Levi’s® store in Passage du Havre in Paris. The lighting uses less electricity, for starters. That electricity comes from a green power provider and is obtained from 100% renewable sources. The store’s high efficiency plumbing fixtures result in 30% less water use. Even the flooring is made of 100% Forest Stewardship Council certified wood.

The Passage du Havre store is further proof that we’re working to build sustainability into everything we do. From a retail perspective, that means building stores that not only showcase our product, but also pay attention to the environment — minimizing the environmental impact during the building process and over the lifetime of the store.

Our recently remodeled headquarters building in San Francisco received LEED Gold Certification by the U.S. Green Building Council, highlighting the building’s high performance in multiple areas of green design and energy use.

It’s a significant accomplishment to achieve a gold rating on a building renovation — when you’re not starting from scratch — particularly when you’re working with existing mechanical systems, building design, windows and the like.